Today

Today I cleaned baseboards.

That's not all I've done today, but it certainly was an interesting task. I can imagine some of you starting to laugh and thinking "She's nesting." Maybe, though the class we took said nesting comes a few days before labor and we're not that close yet.

Josh was painting Kate's room...something I would have rather done but am unable to do in my current "condition." When he saw me sitting on the ground with old toothbrush in hand...
Josh: Are you cleaning baseboards?
Sarah: Yes
Josh: Sarah...(note of question in his voice)
Sarah: What?
Josh: It just doesn't seem like something a pregnant woman should be doing.
Sarah: Well, it needs to be done. Besides, at least I can sit down most of the time.
Josh: You're awesome, thanks for doing that.


Appreciation gives energy to the task. Funny how something like clean baseboards suddenly becomes very important. It's important because this is our home and this is my domain. I want even the details to say "I take care of my family." It's not a glamorous task but it is a sacred one.

Kate weighs in

We had another doctor's appointment today and got to look at Kate again with the help of the sonogram machine. The pictures didn't turn out as well this time, so I won't post them. Kate is healthy and weighing in at 4 lbs, 6 ounces - which is a little bigger than average at this point. The doctor said she wasn't big by much, but this shows she won't be a small baby! Josh and I were both 8 pounders, so I'm not surprised she's getting big. The doctor says she looks like she'll be 7.5 t0 8lbs, but that can change right at the end if she decides to beef up.
Kate is already head down (good girl!) and her head is a good normal size (extra good girl!). The doctor said everything looked good. We got to see her moving around and open her mouth. I think she wanted to say something. Kate gets shy during these visits and tries to cover her face with her hands. Sweet baby!
I have started feeling a few Braxton-Hicks contractions. Preview for labor. I can tell the real thing will be tough because the preview is not comfy. We are 32 weeks and 2 days - still on track for March 24th. But I tell Kate she is welcome to come earlier. I've heard plenty of stories of earlier deliveries to balance all the stories of first babies coming late, so we'll see.

My mother in law is painting Kate's room as I type. Then I will be able to get decorations up on her walls. I've already started washing her clothes - oh they are so cute! Can't wait to have everything ready for her.

Nothing is Impossible

from the day-by-day Murphy's Law calendar
Weiler's Law: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.

At first read, and thinking in the context of Murphy's Law, this calendar page made me laugh. How often have we had a boss or coworker or friend make a request that elicits the response "Yeah, easy for you to say!"

Then later I started thinking about how that relates to our relationship with God. The Bible tells us that "nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37). And while some things might be impossible for us, all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27).

So what? Well, if all things are possible with God, when I leave plans and purposes up to Him, nothing is impossible. When I leave the healing of hurts, the mending of relationships, the changing of my heart, the changing of the hearts of others up to Him, nothing is impossible. All of these things are impossible for me to try to do myself. But nothing is impossible for me if I don't try to do it myself but allow the One who is able to do it.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself. Praise God we don't have to do it ourselves!

Spurs Game

Friday night the Seefeldt family and significant others (Laurie's fiance and Michael's girlfriend) went to see the Spurs play the Nets. We had great seats (see, pretty close!)and had so much fun watching the Spurs win. It was a close game and suspenseful to the end.

Jack and Jo AnnMichael and DeniseJosh and SarahLaurie and Justin (and Josh)

Before this game I think the last time I had watched a full basketball game was in college. I'm usually much more of a football fan than basketball, so this was a new experience for me. It was very fun and it looks like we might become Spurs fans.

Still growing

Here we are at about 31 weeks. Kate is getting big! (And by default so am I!) She should be about 16 inches long and weigh around 3.3 pounds. She can turn her head from side to side and her arms and legs are starting to plump out. Her movements are strong now, not little kicks but stronger, longer pushes at the sides of my belly. Sometimes she will be lying very still and then all of a sudden wiggle and move my whole belly around. Maybe a somersault? Sometimes those movements really startle me. Kate likes to kick and move as I'm trying to fall asleep, as well. Silly baby.

I feel good most of the time. Backaches are my largest complaint. They come up at any time, making church services, basketball games, movies, etc difficult at times. But there is an end in sight and really it's not too much to bear in order to be a part of bringing Kate into the world.

We are starting to have doctor appointments every 2 weeks now. We go again this week. I have to say that I LOVE this new doctor's office so far. The difference is night and day from the last one. This is probably one of the biggest blessings for me in moving during my pregnancy. This ob/gyn group is friendly, not rushed, answers my questions and just seems so much more welcoming. For those of you who know how frustrating the nurse was a the old place, you can imagine how relieving this is.

Two more months to go!

Pictures of Baby Kate!

We had a 3D/4D sonogram done at 25 weeks back in Arlington. I realize that is about 6 weeks ago now. I have been meaning to put up the pictures. So, here is our little girl.

It was such an amazing experience! I can't even explain how incredible it was to watch her move and see her face and her hands and her feet. At one point she even yawned! Precious!

In this one you can see her arm there in front tucking under her bent leg. And you can see her ribs because at that point she had not started getting fat deposits yet.

She was a little shy at times, covering her face with her hands and turning away toward my back. But we got to see her face several times and got to confirm that she is in fact a girl. =)

Now she looks different and looks much more like a newborn. I can't wait to see her and hold her for real.

Book Corner

Another installment of book recommendations

I highly recommend Kabul Beauty School. I listened to this one as an audiobook during my drive out to Kerrville and our traveling over Christmas. It was enjoyable, entertaining, and an intimate look at life for some women in Afghanistan. It's about an American hairdresser who goes to Kabul to help start a beauty school to help Afghani women have a source of income as they learn skills in hairdressing and other beauty salon activities. She tells her story of her clashes with the culture, learning to live in Afghanistan, and the stories of the women she teaches and develops friendships with. It's a good way for us who have not experienced life in this country to get a taste and a little more understanding for what it is like to live there.




I had been wanting to read Three Cups of Tea for a while. I got it for Christmas and read it immediately. It is an inspiring story about how one man set out to keep his promise to a small town in mountainous rural Pakistan. Greg saw the need for education of the children and realized that one of the most effective ways to fight terrorism is to educate the children to see there is another way besides a life of fighting and suicide bombing. It was an encouraging look at what can happen when someone works tirelessly at what he knows will help people long term.

Cowboy Breakfast

Friday morning there was a cowboy breakfast at the courthouse in Kerrville. Since we are now Kervillians, we are trying to attend different town events to really jump into life here. So we headed out to the courthouse a little before 7am (yes, that was early) to see the festivities. One of the sausage companies had provided sausage, Mission tortillas provided tortillas to complete the breakfast sausage wrap, and Hastings bookstore provided coffee and orange juice. (I had orange juice.)(It was cold, so I was bundled up!)

There were several radio stations out there playing music and giving away yellow roses to the ladies. The entertainment consisted of goat milking contests by local businessmen and a cow-patti throwing contest by the local politicians - the mayor, county commissioner, city councilmen, etc. All in all, it was pretty entertaining.
Yay for cowboy breakfast in Kerrville.

Baby Shower Pictures...finally

Our friends from church in Arlington threw a baby shower for me and a couples shower for us the weekend before we moved. It was so great to get to celebrate with friends from our church. We had a great community at Connect and it was wonderful to get to experience it right up to the end of our time living there.

Here are a few pictures Carol sent me. I think mine are still on my camera.

with my momKate's cool name plaque Carol made for her

With my mom, Josh's mom, and Josh's grandmother

expected life

This week my daily planner and prayer journal highlights statistics from Russia. The literacy rate there is just above 99%. The life expectancy hovers at 59.19 years for males and 73.1 for females.

59 years

Wikipedia lists the CIA World Factbook on life expectancies by country. I scrolled through the list, with a high around 87 years to the low of 31.8 years.

31 years

Can you even begin to imagine?

As a counselor, my mind races through the developmental stages of human growth. They don't end at 30 years. I wonder what that means for their development and realize that not everyone has the luxury of taking their time to learn about themselves and life through years of experience.

And then my mind races through what that means spiritually. If you can only expect 31 years of life, there isn't time to put off questions of eternity, assuming you have the opportunity to consider questions of eternity. This means I need to pray for them to hear the truth of the gospel before their 30 years runs out. I need to pray that they would not put off decisions but have open hearts to receive.

There are so many things we can take for granted when we expect to live 70 or more years.

Remember

In my "reading through the Bible" Deuteronomy has coincided with the beginning of this year. This has been very fitting, indeed. Over and over again Moses reminds the Israelites to remember what the Lord has done on their behalf so far. Over and over again he tells them to instruct their children and tell their story of how the Lord brought them out of Egypt and into the land they are about to receive.

Deuteronomy 2:7 reminds the people that they "have not lacked a thing" as the Lord had provided everything they needed, even if they grumbled and complained. In chapters 3 and 4 Moses cautions the people about following other gods, but he does tell them that when they turn back God will be there because He is a compassionate God (4:29-31). Chapters 9 and 10 talk about how everything has been done because of God's goodness, not because the people themselves are good enough.

This has been fitting to read as I start a new year and look back over the last one. I didn't make resolutions this year, but Josh and I have spent time reflecting over 2008. It was a full year and it is important to remember what the Lord did and what He showed us.

How does my faith grow if I forget what God has done?

How can I teach my children about the faithfulness of God if I can't remember it?

Just as a nation cannot grow stronger and better without recognizing her own history, I cannot grow without realizing my history.

He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. Deut. 10:21

Tagged

I just realized I'd been tagged. Here are the rules:
Go to your pictures folder on your computer
Go to the 4th folder
Go to the 4th picture in that folder
Tell us about it
Well, this is a picture from Christmas 2007. These are my super-cute cousins getting the stockings ready to be opened. My aunt is displaying the matching pjs all the girls got that year - Supergirl shirts and yoga pants. (The supergirl shirt doesn't fit me right now, but the yoga pants are a wardrobe staple!) The guys got superman pj pants and t-shirts. So this picture was taken before the opening of presents. We were probably still getting the hot chocolate ready and putting the Panitone (I don't know how to spell it but it's sweet bread) on a tray to pass around. Those are our traditional Christmas morning vittles while we open gifts.

Okay, tag-you're-it:

Shelley
Melody
Ashley Mc
Melanie

Adventures in Kerrville, part 1

Kerrville moves at a different pace than the Metroplex. There is nothing wrong with that, we just have to learn to get used to it. Saturday afternoon we went out to return the movie we had rented from the Redbox by McDonald's. (Redbox is where you can rent DVDs for a $1 per day. They are free-standing vending machines, basically.) When we pulled up we saw that there was an elderly couple using the Redbox. So we parked and waited for them to finish. I could see by the screen that they were still selecting which movie to rent. So we waited. After a few minutes we turned off the car and waited. They seemed like a nice couple just wanting to get a movie for an evening at home together and we didn't want them to feel rushed. So we waited.

After a few more minutes I joked that we might just have to go inside and get an ice cream while we wait. Josh jumped at the idea, so we headed inside. We came out with our two ice cream cones and saw that the couple was still there. Not wanting them to feel hurried, we walked toward the front of McDonald's and watched the street for a while. By this time the couple had decided what they wanted to rent, but were having trouble with the machine. The gentleman tried to use a handful of change, but the machine only takes credit cards. So his lovely bride went to the car and got a credit card and swiped it as many times as was necessary to get the machine to read it. Finally, they were able to retrieve their selected entertainment. They stared at it a bit bewildered for a moment before turning to get back in their truck.

Josh had us walk slowly over to the machine so as not to appear as though we had been waiting on them. Our errand took about 6 seconds. We touched a button on the screen and slid the DVD in. In fact, the couple was still pulling out of their parking spot as we turned to get into our car.

Task completion time: 6 seconds
Total errand time: about 15 mintues

I think I'll start taking a book everywhere I go...even to the Redbox.

Graduation friends

Stephanie just emailed me this picture, so I have to post it even though I already talked about graduation. Steph, the one on the far right, and I started the counseling program at seminary together. She's an Aggie, too, but we didn't know each other until seminary. We had probably 80% of our classes together. Shanna, the one on the left, started a semester before us but we got to be good friends with her our first semester. All three of us interned at the women's shelter last summer.
Thanks for the picture, Steph!
And thank you both for your friendship and camaraderie getting through the program! Keep in touch!

Happy New Year!We went out to dinner in Fredericksburg with Josh's parents. I had found this place online that was having live music but we didn't find out until we got there that it was out on the porch. Fortunately they had heaters set up and good food, so we enjoyed our time. Then we drove over to a little local coffee house - very local and enjoyable. While we were there an older lady came in who is distinctly from Germany (accent and all). We talked with her for a while about Germany and last names and heritage. That's what I will like about a small town.